CO200 – Topics in Comparative Literature: Vladimir Nabokov

Novelist, poet, translator and entomologist, Vladimir Nabokov is known for his exceptional bilingual literary production in Russian and English. Nabokov's innovation and evocative uses of language for, is best stated by John Updike who imparts, "Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is ecstatically."

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Instructor(s)

An examination of Nabokov's exceptional bilingual literary production in Russian and English. Particular emphasis on Nabokov's innovation and evocative uses of language for, as John Updike notes, 'Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is ecstatically.'
Texts include: Speak Memory; The Defense; Invitation to a Beheading; Pnin; Lolita; Pale Fire; and selected poems and short stories. No knowledge of Russian required as we will read Nabokov's self-translations of the Russian texts.